Paint systems may be applied to exterior surfaces of commercial aircraft. Typically, surface preparation is performed on bare or primed surfaces, and then primer, base coat and decorative coat are applied.
The surface preparation may be performed manually. However, manual surface preparation such as sanding poses human health hazards such as dust inhalation and poor ergonomics.
These hazards can be avoided by a robot system that autonomously performs surface preparation. In addition to avoiding human health hazards, the robot system can provide a more consistent process than manual surface preparation.
The following features for a robot system would be desirable: the ability to (1) cover a surface rapidly, yet maintain a high quality surface finish; (2) maintain consistent stroke or path patterns; and (3) maintain constant force with different tool orientations. This last feature is especially desirable with respect to commercial aircraft.
It would also be desirable for the robot system to satisfy these objectives with respect to large open surface areas and small restricted areas on a commercial aircraft. (A commercial aircraft fuselage typically has large open surface areas above and below windows and doors, and small restricted areas between windows.) It would be desirable for a robot system to move from nose to tail while performing surface preparation on both the larger open surface areas and the smaller restricted areas without having to change end effector tools.